


Together, For Survival

by lannisterslioness



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff everywhere basically, Prompt Collections, Tumblr Prompts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-04-21 06:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 16,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4819151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannisterslioness/pseuds/lannisterslioness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of all my little Clawen drabbles I've been writing on Tumblr! I'll post what the drabble is based on with each prompt. They're not really connected in any way, I just wanted a place to keep all my Clawen fluff together, hope you guys enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Can't Stop Thinking About You

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Lame title is lame, I know; but really I just wanted a place to keep all this adorable Clawen fluff together that I've been writing. I'll keep this open ended for any more requests I may get (which by the way, you are more than welcome to leave a request in my ask box: lannisterslioness.tumblr.com), and they'll more than likely all end up here unless my brain decides to turn it into it's own little full fledged fic like some of the other Clawen things I've done in the past! So here you are, relax and enjoy the fluff! 
> 
> This piece is based of the request I got: "I can't stop thinking about you."

     Owen had spent their entire dinner thinking of a way to tell Claire that he was more the sure that he was falling in love with her, the trick was to do it in a way that didn’t scare Claire off. Things were just starting to go really well between them, and the last thing Owen wanted to do was mess everything up by telling her he loved her too soon. It wasn’t until he was standing right next to her, helping her wash the dishes, that he worked up enough courage to just blurt something out.

 

     “I can’t stop thinking about you.” It had just sort of tumbled out of his mouth, it wasn’t exactly what Owen had planned on leading with, but it was too late to take it back now.

 

     “…What?” Claire stopped what she was doing and looked up at Owen in confusion.

 

     “I, uh, sort of can’t stop thinking about you. I mean, I can just be minding my own business and going on with my day and all the sudden I see something that reminds me of you, or think of something that I know would make you smile or laugh…I think I’m in love with you.” He finally said it; it was finally out there in the open between them, and Owen found himself feeling relieved, though still anxious about what her reaction to this kind of confession might be.

 

     Claire seemed to be frozen in place, the only thing telling Owen that she wasn’t frozen was how her eyes shifted from holding his gaze to down towards the floor while she chewed on her lower lip. The silence was slowly eating at Owen, making him a nervous wreck on the inside while he tried to hold it together. He knew it was a risk telling Claire something like this just as they were getting comfortable with where they were in their relationship.

 

     “I think I love you too, Owen.” Claire had said it so quietly that Owen almost missed it, but when he saw her smile, he couldn’t doubt what he had heard.

 

     Owen knew he caught Claire by surprise when he stole a kiss form her, she made that little squeak that she always made when he caught her off guard. But as quickly as he pulled away, Claire wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back in for another kiss.

 

     “You know what, I know that I’m in love with you.” Owen mumbled against her lips.

 

     “Good, because I love you too.” Claire giggled.


	2. Wedding Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "If you shove cake in my face this will be the worst wedding night of your life."

     “Owen, I swear to god, if you shove cake in my face this will be the worst wedding night of your life.” Claire stated in all seriousness, she had seen the way he was eyeing the cake as soon as he got it, she knew his mischievous nature all too well.

 

     Claire also overheard the friendly bet Owen had made with Zach before they cut the cake; Zach was more than sure that Owen wouldn’t dare to mess with Claire on their wedding day, while Owen seemed convinced that he could get away with it. Gray was standing over by Karen recording the whole thing, though from the way Claire had caught him glancing over at his brother, she knew that both of her nephews were in on it.

 

     “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Owen reassured her, though he was still grinning.

     

     She was just about to give him the benefit of the doubt as she grabbed her piece of cake, thinking that perhaps Owen would actually go along with things normally. However, as soon as she faced her husband, he shoved the cake right in her face, leaving her to stand in shock for a minute.

 

     “Oh my god.” She could hear Zach not too far away, more than likely in the same state of shock that she was, not really believing that Owen actually did it.

 

     “Sorry babe.” Owen was trying to keep himself from laughing too much as he leaned in a stole a kiss from her.

 

     Before Owen could pull away completely, Claire took her cake and rubbed it right in his face, making sure the cake and frosting got everywhere it possibly could on his face.

 

     “Oops, sorry babe.” Claire couldn’t help but laugh now too, she had made Owen look completely ridiculous, though she could only imagine how she looked now.

 

     Owen wiped a finger full of icing off of Claire’s face and ate it with a shrug. “At least it’s good cake.”


	3. Rock, Paper, Scissors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "Rock Paper Scissors to see who has to go talk to the neighbors upstairs for being too loud."

     “This is childish Owen, just go talk to them!” Claire insisted, they had been going back in forth over the past twenty minutes, arguing over who would be going upstairs to tell the neighbors to keep it down.

 

     “It’s not that bad.” Owen tried to calmly explain, just as the upstairs surround sound seemed to be going through some intense action sequence - filled with multiple explosions going off.

 

     “Not that bad? I can barely hear myself think!” Claire snapped. “Did you not just hear that chain of explosions go off? They’re practically running a movie theater up there.”

 

     “Okay, true…look, let’s settle this fair and square. Rock Paper Scissors to see who will have to go talk to them for being too loud.” Owen suggested.

 

     “Seriously? I take back what I said earlier, this is childish.” Claire folded her arms across her chest with a huff, though Owen didn’t seem fazed by her display; he had seen her get far angrier than this, and compared to those times, this was something he knew Claire would get over easily.

 

     Reluctantly, Claire went along with his game. Right on the first try, Owen had rock and Claire gave a triumphant grin by choosing to go with paper.

 

     “Best two out of three?” Owen asked hopefully.

 

     “Oh no, I won this one.” Claire laughed. “Go on, get moving.”

 

     “Do I really have to?” Owen was starting to pout like a child, which only made Claire laugh a bit more.

 

     “Yes, you have to, the game was your idea in the first place.” Claire reminded him, though that didn’t stop him from pouting. “Okay, how about you go up there and talk to the neighbors, and I’ll make you your favorite dinner tonight, and maybe after that when everything is finally quiet in here again, we can relax and have a little bit of fun ourselves.”

 

     Owen knew what fun Claire was describing, it usually involved them being in the bedroom and her wearing that red lingerie he liked so much, it also usually involved her teasing him a bit, but he never minded that.

 

     “Alright, you’ve talked me into it. After all, I have to be a man of my word, you won, I lost.” Owen admitted with a sigh. “I’ll go talk to them.”

 

     “You used to train raptors, I think you can handle the neighbors.” Claire said with a smirk before leaning in and giving Owen a kiss on the cheek. “Just think about later on, that should motivate you enough.”

 

     “I don’t think those thoughts will help me much with talking to them.” Owen grinned, just as another explosion from the surround sound vibrated through their apartment and Claire looked on the verge of going upstairs and murdering the neighbors. “I’m gonna go handle that now.”


	4. I Can't Control Myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "Sometimes I just can't control myself when around you."

     When Owen had an off day, Claire noticed that he had a pattern. First thing was he would wear pajamas all day, and not just any pajamas, but his dinosaur ones – sometimes she couldn’t believe that she had actually fallen in love with a man who still wore dinosaur pajamas, but she had to admit he looked almost adorable in them. He would also take his off day to completely relax, and Owen’s idea of relaxing was spending the day on the sofa and playing video games while attempting to eat cereal and shouting at whoever was playing with him over his headphones; Claire was just thankful that she didn’t have to hear whatever he was hearing thanks to those headphones she’d given him for Christmas. Last but not least, at the end of the day when the video games were done, Owen would always insist on making dinner and dessert for Claire.

 

     With the desserts, Owen always got a bit creative, and tonight’s had been chocolate chip cookies, only he’d replaced half the chocolate chips with M&M’s. And somehow, despite her stressful day at work, it all seemed worth it to come home to the man she loved, curled up on the sofa in dinosaur pajamas, watching some sort of cartoon, and stuffing chocolate chip cookies into his mouth; Claire couldn’t stop herself from laughing now as she watched him.

 

     “What?” Owen asked with a mouthful of the cookie he was eating, it only made Claire laugh more.

 

     “It’s nothing.” Claire smiled as she got herself together now and took a cookie off the plate in front of them. “Did you have a good day off?”

 

     Instead of trying to speak again, Owen just nodded while Claire snuggled up closer to him on the couch. Without hesitation, Owen wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. Once Owen had finished eating his cookie, Claire’s put hers down and cupped Owen’s face before dragging him closer to her and kissing him, it wasn’t often she got to surprise him like that after all. She stopped the kiss before Owen even had the chance to kiss her back, and it had been a while since Claire had seen him look so surprised.

 

     “What was that for?” Owen asked while trying to fight off a smile.

 

     “Nothing really.” Claire shrugged. “I guess sometimes I just can’t control myself when I’m around you.”

 

     “I knew you couldn’t resist me.” Owen grinned. “Either that or you have a thing for dinosaur pj’s.”

 

     “I think it’s definitely the pajamas.” Claire tugged on the bottom of his shirt now. “Who could possibly resist them?”

 

     “Do you, uh, wanna go to bed?” Owen asked; there was that glint in his eyes that told Claire his mind was already wandering.

 

     “Finish your cartoon, we’ve got all night, I’m off tomorrow.” Claire smirked.


	5. Favorite Dress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "I can't fit into my favorite dress anymore."

     “Claire, we’re gonna be late!” Owen called out from downstairs; for once he was actually ready to go before Claire when usually she was trying to rush him out the front door.

 

     “Just a minute!” Claire answered.

 

     Owen waited another few minutes downstairs before he had to go see what was going on upstairs. As he made his way up to their bedroom, he could hear Claire talking to herself, clearly sounding frustrated with whatever she was doing. When Owen finally walked into the room, he couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at the sight in front of him. There was his beautiful wife, struggling with the dress she was trying to get on that clearly wasn’t going to work with her ever-growing pregnant belly.

 

     “It’s not funny.” Claire stated, he could tell from the look on her face that things weren’t going exactly the way she had planned.

 

     “It kinda is.” Owen smirked. “Why are you trying to fit into that thing? You’ve got other dresses.”

 

     “Well, this one is my favorite, and I can’t fit in it anymore.” Claire grumbled and still tried to mess with the zipper for her dress behind her, though it refused to budge.

 

     Owen walked up to her and moved her hand away from the zipper before wrapping his arms around her and resting his hands on the growing bump.

 

     “Hey, it’s alright.” Owen smiled as he rested his chin on Claire’s shoulder. “Not fitting in this dress means that we’re getting even closer to meeting little Charlie.”

 

     “I know,” Claire sighed in defeat, “it’s just that this one was my favorite.”

 

     “And you can still wear your favorite dress again after Charlie is born.” Owen reminded her. “But for now, I think she’s gonna need some breathing room, she’s not allowed to wear dresses this tight until she’s forty.”

 

     He finally got a smile out of Claire from that one and couldn’t help but give her a kiss on the cheek.

 

     “Alright, you win.” Claire mumbled as she separated herself from Owen. “I guess I could wear the blue one instead.”

 

     “Need any help?” Owen asked as Claire made her way to the closet.

 

     “Nope, I’ve got it.” Claire assured him.

 

     He waited a few minutes until he heard Claire struggling again with the dress.

 

     “Owen…I need some help.” Claire stated, though Owen could hear how much she hated admitting that she needed the assistance.


	6. The Jelly Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "You found me crying on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night surrounded by a shattered jelly jar."

     It wasn’t often that Owen woke up in the middle of the night, ever since him and Claire had moved in together he’d been getting some of the best sleep of his life. Yet, when he rolled over and fully expected Claire to be in bed beside him, he was surprised to find that she was missing, and from how cold the sheets beside him were – she’d been out of bed for a while. Despite not wanting to leave the comfort of their bed, Owen dragged himself out of the bedroom in search of where Claire may have gone. He didn’t have to look very far since by the time he reached the living room, he was able to hear crying coming from the kitchen.

 

     “Claire?” Owen asked quietly at first, he knew there was no possible way anyone else would be in their apartment, but he’d only ever seen Claire cry a few times and it certainly was a rarity.

 

     When she didn’t answer, Owen slowly walked towards the kitchen, almost afraid as to what he would find. The first thing he noticed was the open refrigerator door, which had also been the only thing illuminating the kitchen. There Claire was, sitting on the floor beside it, her knees tucked up towards her chest and her face buried in her knees, and beside her was a jar of jelly that had shattered onto the floor.

 

     “Claire, are you alright?” Owen began to panic now, fearing that she was hurt in someway, and despite his lack of slippers, he carefully stepped over the shattered glass and kneeled down in front of Claire. “Claire, it’s okay, are you hurt?”

 

     Claire stopped crying, slowly lifting her face to meet Owen’s gaze. Her eyes were red rimmed and a bit swollen from all the crying she had done; he could still see the tears falling down her cheeks, which he quickly wiped away with his thumb.

 

     “I’m fine.” She whispered, her voice a bit raspy, as she took the chance to lean into Owen’s hand that was now cupping the side of her face.

 

     “What’s the matter, is everything okay?” Owen didn’t want to pelt her with too many questions, but he wanted to know what was wrong more than anything.

 

     “I don’t know.” Claire shrugged. “I just…I don’t know. It’s just something stupid anyway.”

 

     “Clearly it’s not stupid if it’s got you so upset.” Owen pointed out. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”

 

     “It’s fine, I just broke the stupid jar, I came in here trying to make a sandwich and…honestly I don’t know why I decided to cry over that.” She said with a bit of a smirk now. “Thank you for checking on me though.”

 

     “Come on, let’s get you up off the floor.” Owen smiled now as he stood up and held his hand out for Claire. As soon as she was upright again he pressed a couple of kisses to her forehead. “I’m gonna clean this stuff up, and how about after that we just go with some ice cream instead?”

 

     “Owen, I can clean this up, you don’t even have any shoes on.” Claire protested.

 

     “Last I checked, you don’t either.” Owen laughed.

 

     “I’m still going to help.” Claire stated.

 

     Before Claire could protest any further, Owen scooped Claire up into his arms and began carrying her out of the kitchen.

 

     “Owen! Put me down!” She was attempting to sound serious and angry, but Claire couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

 

     He finally did listen and put her down, except only when he had gotten her back to the bedroom and he placed her down on their bed.

 

     “I’m going to get my slippers and go take care of the jelly incident, and then I’m going to bring back some ice cream and we can watch whatever horrible things they put on TV at three in the morning until we fall back asleep, okay?” Owen asked her.

 

     “Okay.” Claire agreed begrudgingly, but before he had the chance to pull away from her face, she pulled him in for a kiss. “You know I love you, right?”

 

     “Of course.” Owen smiled and stole another kiss. “And I love you too, broken jelly jars and all.”


	7. Mario Kart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "I beat you at Mario Kart and now you're banishing me to the couch for the night?"

     “Claire, you can’t be serious.” Owen said as he stood in the doorway to their bedroom, apparently forbidden from crossing the threshold according to Claire.

 

     “I am very serious.” Claire threw one of the pillows off of the bed directly at Owen, which he barely caught in time.

 

     “Claire, come on, it was just a game.” Owen tried to protest and he couldn’t help but laugh a bit at how ridicules the fight was.

 

     Claire wasn’t a video game person, that much Owen was able to figure out quickly, yet there were times when he would catch her watching him play them. Tonight, he’d decided that he was going to try to get her to play one; starting with the easiest one he could think of – Mario Kart. They were both having fun until Claire lost and she had decided to send Owen to the couch for beating her at the game.

 

     The next thing Claire had thrown out the door was a blanket that more or less landed right on top of him.

 

     “You’re actually banning me to the sofa for this?” Owen asked in disbelief.

 

     “Yes.” Claire snapped.

 

     “God, Claire.” Owen sighed, trying to think of something to save him form sleeping on their terribly uncomfortable couch. “You sure there isn’t anything I can do to change your mind?”

 

     “Oh no, that’s not going to work this time.” Claire laughed. “There is only one thing that will get you back in this room tonight.”

 

     “And what might that be?” Owen asked hopefully.

 

     “Rematch.” Claire stated. “Right now.”

 

     “That sounds like a bad idea.” Owen said.

 

     “Those are my terms, either we go have a rematch right now or you will be enjoying the sofa tonight.” Claire was standing her ground, and Owen knew there was no other way around it.

 

     “Okay, okay fine, rematch.” Owen nodded as he put his pillow and blankets on the ground.

 

     Claire walked past him with a grin on her face, having won at least something so far tonight. Owen knew that Claire would notice if he let her win this rematch, he just had to find a convincing way to lose so things would go back to normal. But once all of this was over with, Owen knew that if he valued sleeping in bed with his wife, he would keep her away from all other video games at all costs.


	8. Deck The Halls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "I know we had a big fight but we still need to decorate the house for the holidays."

     Things had been eerily silent between Owen and Claire for the past two hours. They had always clashed, having small fights here and there that were usually resolved before they could truly call it a fight, at least it had been that way since they had gotten married. But this was their first big fight in a while, and it managed to happen before they had to decorate for Christmas with Karen and the boys on the way. When Owen got mad, he removed himself from the situation, went for either a walk or a drive to clear his head and give Claire her space; and when he returned home he wasn’t all that surprised to see Claire going through their box of Christmas stuff already. She hadn’t noticed that he came back until he put his keys down on the table beside the door.

 

     “Owen, I know we had a big fight but…Karen and the boys will be here tomorrow, we still need to decorate.” Claire seemed a bit distant, almost as if she were bracing herself for him just storming off again or him saying nothing at all.

 

     Owen nodded and walked over towards one of the boxes. “I’ll help.”

 

     Everything was quiet between them at first, Owen went on hanging up the bigger stuff around the house and outside, while Claire had started working on the tree they had gotten a few days ago. They kept to their separate spaces for the time being, but all the silence was beginning to drive Owen crazy. He was planning on going right up to her, apologizing for what he said, and breaking this silence, but as soon as he walked in the door again, Claire was standing there waiting for him.

 

     “Um, can we talk for a minute?” Claire asked, weather she noticed it or not Owen saw her practically strangling the Santa hat in her hands out of nervous habit.

 

     “Yeah.” Owen said and stepped aside, shutting the door behind him.

 

     “I just…I wanted to say sorry, for everything. I got so caught up and stressed out about everything going on and I took it all out on you and…I’m sorry.” Claire was trying her best to hold everything together, as she always had, but she looked on the verge of tears.

 

     “I’m sorry too.” Owen said. “I knew you were stressed out and I just kept pushing it and pushing it. You know I can be a stubborn ass sometimes.”

 

     “Me too.” Claire admitted.

 

     Owen smirked and leaned in to steal a quick kiss, but as soon as Claire got a hold of him, she wasn’t about to let him escape with one little kiss. He felt her hands make their way up to around his neck and before he knew it, she pulled away from him with a broad grin on her face and a Santa hat missing from her grasp.

 

     “You’re a sneaky little thing when you want to be, aren’t you?” Owen laughed and spotted a nearby pair of reindeer antlers. “Payback time.”

 

     He tried not to laugh too much at how Claire looked with reindeer antlers on, especially the kind that lit up, but he failed as soon as the lights on it started flashing.

 

     “Laugh all you want but as soon as you’re asleep tonight, someone is getting put in an elf hat while holding a teddy bear and getting their picture taken.” Claire smirked.

 

     “Whatever makes you happy.” Owen said as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Need any help with the tree?”

 

     “Yeah, I could use some help with the taller parts.” Claire said.

 

     “Maybe I should have put the elf hat on you instead, shorty.” Owen teased.

 

     “Keep going, the more you tease me, the more people that picture is getting sent to later on.” Claire warned him with a grin.


	9. When's Our Anniversary?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "We've been celebrating our wedding anniversary on the wrong day for the past nine years."

     Every year since they’d been married, Claire made the both her and Owen go through spring cleaning; and every year Claire was surprised with how much junk managed to pile up since the last spring cleaning. Right now, Claire found herself up on a step stool and cleaning out the top shelf of their closet, which always managed to be one of the messier places after a year. She had done her best to avoid getting distracted by the photo albums, the exceptions being the school pictures of their kids and the stray family photos that hadn’t made their way into an album yet. But then she’d come across her wedding album, and that she couldn’t skip looking through that quite so easily. And despite the fond memories she remembered while flipping through those pictures, there was something off at the very back of the album.

 

     “Owen?” Claire called out.

 

     “Yeah?” He answered, she had put him on the mission of helping Ryan down the hall to clean out her closet since her older sister Charlie had declared she was old enough to clean her closet by herself.

 

     “Come here for a minute.” Claire was still staring at the old wedding invitation in the back of the photo album in disbelief.

 

     It took him a few minutes before he finally came into the room, and Claire still couldn’t wrap her mind around how the date on the wedding invitation was possibly correct.

 

     “What’s wrong?” Owen asked curiously as he peaked over her shoulder.

 

     “When’s our wedding anniversary, Owen?” Claire asked.

 

     “June 19th.” He answered without a pause and a bit of a proud smile on his face, it took him a few years to remember it correctly, and while he may have run around at the last minute before he fully remembered the day, he now had that date fixed into his memory. “Why?”

 

     “Because apparently we’ve been celebrating our wedding anniversary on the wrong day for the past nine years.” Claire couldn’t help but laugh now as she held out the wedding invitation for Owen to see.

 

     “What? No way.” Owen took the invitation from her and read it over and over again, and every time it still said they were married on June 15th. “Well…you could always use a sharpie and fix the date, no one will ever know.”

 

     Claire glared at him before shaking her head, never losing the smile on her face.

 

     “I’m gonna have to remember the 15th now, aren’t I?” Owen asked.

 

     “You know, I think the 19th is fine. We’ve been celebrating it on that day for nine years already, we might as well keep going with it.” Claire said with a shrug as she put the invitation back into the wedding album.

 

     “Good, because do you have any idea how long it took me just to remember the 19th?” Owen asked with a smirk.

 

     “Too long, I know that.” Claire smiled. “But now that can be our little secret.” She leaned over and gave Owen a kiss on the cheek.


	10. The Pillow Fort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: "Our kid is totally the one who wanted to build a pillow fort, not me."

     “Owen, Charlie, I’m home!” Claire called out as soon as she walked through the front door. Her feet were aching after a long day at work and all she wanted more than anything was to sit down, have a glass of wine, and spend some time with her two favorite people in the entire world. “Owen? Charlie?”

 

     Usually as soon as Claire walked through the front door, little Charlie would run right for her and hug her legs as tightly as she could until Claire kneeled down and picked her up. Owen usually wouldn’t be far behind her with a smile on his face, as he’d wrap his arms around Claire and give her a kiss. But today, neither of them came for her, and she would have thought they were gone if she didn’t hear giggling coming from the living room.

 

     “Where are you guys?” Claire murmured under her breath as she followed the giggling until she was greeted by the sight of a giant pillow fort built in the middle of the living room. “What is this?”

 

     “Mommy, mommy!” Charlie called out as she came barreling out of the entrance to the pillow fort and grabbed a hold of Claire’s legs like she always did. Her bright red curly hair was a bit frizzy, and her hands were covered in marker stains that she hoped were washable markers.

 

     “There you are.” Claire smiled as she bent down and picked up her little three year old. “Where’s daddy?” She asked her.

 

     “In here!” Owen called out as Claire watched him try to crawl out of the fort. It took him a few minutes to maneuver out of the thing without bringing the whole fort down, but once he was finally up and out, he planted a kiss on Claire’s cheek. “How was your day?”

 

     “It was fine, but I see it wasn’t as fun as the day you two had.” Claire nodded towards the fort. “Did you two use every pillow in the house?”

 

     “It’s…possible.” Owen said with a sheepish grin.

 

     “And whose idea was this?” Claire asked.

 

     “Charlie wanted to build one, I just helped out.” Owen answered right away.

 

     “Is that true Charlie?” Claire asked the little girl in her arms.

 

     Charlie hesitated for a moment; her gaze flickered over to her father before resting back on her mothers gaze again. Charlie started nodding her head and out of the corner of her eyes, Claire saw Owen nodding his head too, giving Charlie the answer.

 

     “I see.” Claire said with a smirk. “Well, how about my two little architects here make sure all the pillows find their way back to their homes before dinner time, okay?”

 

     “Okay.” Both Owen and Charlie said in unison.

 

     “I made a picture for you, mommy! It’s in the fort.” Charlie grinned.

 

     “Care to join us?” Owen asked as he held back the sheet that doubled as an entrance into the fort.

 

     “I guess a few minutes wouldn’t hurt.” Claire said as she put Charlie down. Charlie made a beeline directly back into the fort, and before Owen could follow her in there, Claire gave him a kiss on the cheek.

 

     “So it was Charlie’s idea, huh?” Claire asked with a knowing grin.

 

     “Well, it may have been a team effort.” Owen admitted.


	11. Hot & Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompts: "I'm cold. Come closer." & "Who changed the thermostat setting? I'm freezing to death."

     Claire could tolerate the cold, she’d grown up in Wisconsin after all, but after being home for an hour, Claire was sure it was freezing in their apartment. It was the middle of summer in San Diego, and it felt as if it winter time inside the apartment.

 

     “Owen, did you change the thermostat? It’s freezing in here?” Claire asked as she walked down the hall from their room, stopping at the thermostat along the way to see what it was set on.

 

     “Nope.” He answered.

 

     She knew she set the thing on 72 this morning, which was just the right temperature, yet now it said it was 67 inside. Claire decided to leave it alone, and made her way over to Owen and sat down beside him on the sofa. She could tell he had a tough day at work, despite being freshly showered off; he had some pretty bad sunburn on his arms and legs, and he looked a little pink on his cheeks too. Claire could feel the heat radiating off of him and she was quickly able to piece together why he turned the temperature down in the first place.

 

     “What happened?” Claire asked, as she observed just how bright red his sunburn was, it looked more than painful. “Did you forget sunblock again?”

 

     “Yeah.” Owen sighed. “I remembered halfway through the day but as you can see, I was a bit too late.”

 

     Claire gently rested one of her hands on Owen’s arm, as soon as her icy cold hands made contact with his burning hot skin, he hissed a little bit and she pulled away.

 

     “No, that actually feels good.” Owen realized a moment later. “You’re freezing.”

 

     “That’s what I was trying to tell you before.” Claire said with a small grin. “Well, I’m freezing cold, and you’re burning up, so how about we even this out.”

 

     Before Owen could respond, Claire snuggled up closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. She felt one of his arms wrap around her waist and hold her closer to him, the heat from his body chasing away the freezing cold that had set in on Claire. Finally being able to warm up, Claire actually felt a bit drowsy now that she was comfortable, and Owen gently rubbing small circles on her hip wasn’t helping with keeping her awake. She knew Owen noticed she was drifting to sleep when she heard him laugh a bit.

 

     “Go ahead and get some sleep.” Owen said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

 

     “Mmkay.” Claire mumbled, burying her face into his chest. “Love you.”

 

     “I love you too.” Owen smiled and watched Claire slowly drift off to sleep.


	12. Finger Paint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompts: "I think someone had a little accident with the finger paint." & "I told you we should have just gotten that German Shepard puppy."

     Owen had seen his fair share of messes before, and he knew before he and Claire even had Charlie that little kids were mess-making factories. But today, Charlie had managed to reach an all time high with her mess, todays disaster involved finger pain and Owen leaving her unattended for a maximum of five minutes while he went downstairs as soon as he heard Claire come home. He’d spent the entire day with Charlie without much fuss, until he left her and she decided to use her finger paints on the walls, the carpet, the curtains, and most of her stuffed animals in her play room. Claire went ahead and gave Charlie a bath, while Owen scrubbed the paint off the walls and out of the carpet, though he knew the stuffed animals and curtains would have to be taken down and washed.

 

     “Let’s use this as a lesson to never leave her alone with finger paint again.” Claire said with a sigh as she walked back into the room.

 

     “Where’s Charlie?” Owen asked.

 

     “I guess painting her masterpiece tired her out.” Claire smirked. “She was tired when I got her out of the bath, as soon as I put her down in her crib she was knocked out.”

 

     “A nap sounds nice right about now.” Owen grumbled, still attempting to get the last few stains out of the carpet from the paint.

 

     Claire walked over to the pile of stuffed animals, picking out the ones that Charlie had painted and setting them aside to be thrown into the washing machine.

 

     “Maybe we should have just gotten that German Shepard puppy first, practiced with puppy messes before all of this.” Claire mused as she moved over and started taking the curtains down.

 

     “I don’t know, imagine if the puppy got into paint somehow, something tells me that would be worse.” Owen laughed.

 

     “That’s very true.” Claire grinned.

 

     “We could still get a puppy though, if you want.” Owen offered.

 

     “Maybe we should just take one mess at a time.” Claire suggested. “We’ll think about the puppy again once Charlie grows out of the finger paint stage.”


	13. Show Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: Owen doing press ups with Claire on his back.

     Over the six months that Claire had lived with Owen, she had come to learn that Owen was a bit of a show-off. There were times, when they were completely alone in their apartment and Claire would be focused on something for work, that Owen would feel a bit neglected to say the least; this often led to him trying to show-off to get her attention, which usually resulted in Claire being worried that he was going to hurt himself. But as Claire had realized over their tome together, he loved any and all attention she gave him, weather it was the kind that led to the bedroom, or the kind that lead to her scolding him for being so careless and a drive to the emergency room.

 

     Tonight, she could tell that it was practically killing Owen to leave her alone; she had an important meeting in the morning and he’d left her to do her work in their bedroom after dinner while he tried to entertain himself. An hour into him supposedly leaving her be, she noticed he’d walk into the bedroom and pretend to look for something he didn’t need, linger an extra minute longer than he truly needed to, and then slowly wander out of the room before returning ten minutes later for something else. After he wandered into the room for the seventh time by Claire’s count, she shut her laptop and made her way into the living room to see what exactly he was doing out there; to her surprise, she found that he’d done some rearranging, moving their sofa and coffee table out of the way, and doing push-ups.

 

     “What are you doing?” Claire asked, though Owen seemed unfazed by her question. It took her a minute to realize that he had his headphones in and couldn’t even hear her question in the first place.

 

     She crouched down and pulled one of the earbuds out, and Claire couldn’t help but smile a bit at how he jumped when he realized she was beside him.

 

     “Hey,” Owen was a bit out of breath, “how long have you been there?”

 

     “Not long, what exactly are you doing?” Claire asked as stood up to her full height again.

 

     Owen shifted his position until he was sitting upright, his back leaning against the coffee table behind him. “Well, you were busy so I figured I’d get some exercise in. Are you done with your work?”

 

     “Just about, I figured I’d take a break and see what you were up to.” Claire shrugged.

 

     Claire didn’t fail to noticed how Owen’s mood seemed to shift almost instantly and how he now had a broad grin on his face.

 

     “I bet I can do twenty-five push-ups with you sitting on my back.” Owen said, and Claire knew that he was trying to show-off right then and there, needing to fully capture her attention.

 

     “Owen, that sounds like a bad idea.” Claire attempted to reason with him, though she knew when he got like this that trying to reason with him was pointless.

 

     “Claire, you’re light as a feather. You seem to be forgetting Thanksgiving when I could bench press Gray and do push-ups with Zach sitting on top of me, after they stuffed their faces.” Owen smirked.

 

     “Which was a bad idea, someone could have gotten hurt.” Claire pointed out.

 

     “But no one did, and I think the most important thing was that no one threw up either.” Owen clarified.

 

     Claire rolled her eyes; she knew Owen wouldn’t give up until she agreed to his irrational idea. He was persistent, and even if she kept telling him know, he would haunt her for the rest of the night until she would break down and let him try it anyway.

 

     “Alright, fine.” Claire sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

 

     Owen got back into position and Claire couldn’t help but feel a bit ridicules as she tried to gingerly sit down on his back. The first few push-ups were terrifying while Claire tried to find her center of balance while on his back. Slowly but surely however, everything leveled out, and before Claire knew it Owen had finished.

 

     “You actually did it, I’m impressed.” Claire grinned as she slid off of him and sat beside him on the floor.

 

     “Told you I could.” Owen said as he sprawled out, deciding to stay on the floor, though Claire knew he would never admit that it actually tired him out a bit.

 

     “You okay?” Claire asked with a bit of a giggle.

 

     “Fine, just a little tired.” Owen said. “I guess you have to go finish your work now, huh?” He asked, sounding a bit disappointed knowing his time with her was surely up.

 

     Without a word, Claire shifted her position and decided to lie down beside him, curled up on her side with a smile one her face.

 

     “Work can wait a little longer.” Claire said as she ran her fingers through his hair before leaning over to press a kiss against his now slightly sweaty forehead.


	14. The Hangover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well, I spent the whole day sick in bed yesterday, and at first I thought about writing about a sick Claire, but then for some reason I was hit with the thought of what would happen if Claire got this terrible hangover and Owen took care of her? (Like I could imagine Claire doesn’t really drink and if she ever got a hangover she’d be so run down by it.) I don’t really know why I decided to go with this idea, but hey I gave it a shot! Not sure if I’m too crazy about how it turned out but I hope you guys like it!

     Owen knew from the moment that Claire holed herself up in the bathroom before the sun had even fully risen, that she wasn’t going to have a good day. He’d never seen Claire drunk before, and somehow one thing had led to another, and he saw a completely different Claire after a few shots of tequila. Today she was paying the price, and Owen couldn’t help but feel awful for talking her into it.

 

     “I feel like I’m going to die.” Claire mumbled into the pillow she was hugging close to her body, her back to Owen as one of her legs hung off the other side of the bed.

 

     “Have you ever had a hangover before?” Owen asked out of curiosity, with her one glass of wine after work on the truly tough days, he could never picture Claire as someone who drank a lot, until last night that is.

 

     “Once, in college. It was terrible.” Claire grumbled.

 

     “Drink some water, you’re probably dehydrated.” Owen said, though Claire buried her face into the pillow in front of her even more, trying to tune him out – which he had to admit was a bit amusing to see Claire acting like a sick little kid.

 

     Owen got out of bed and crouched down beside her, pulling the pillow down away from her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, she was even more pale than usual, and she looked exhausted more than anything else. He couldn’t help but smile a bit and brush the few stray strands of her red hair away from her face before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

 

      “Come on Claire, you need to drink something.” He grabbed the bottle off the nightstand and held it out in front of her.

 

     Claire crinkled up her nose for a minute, Owen knew she wasn’t exactly fond of drinking anything at the moment, but the logic must have finally kicked in as she took the bottle and drank the smallest sip she possibly could before handing it back to him.

 

     “Good enough for now, I guess.” Owen sighed and put the water back on the table. “You want any toast or something? You should eat something too.”

 

     “No!” Claire exclaimed as Owen saw a brief flash of what he could only call fear in her eyes. “No toast, I had that last time and I saw the toast shortly after eating it.”

 

     “Okay, okay, no toast.” Owen couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face; when Claire got better he was dying to hear this elusive drunken college story that led to her hating toast. “Toast is evil, got it. How about crackers? Or are they evil too?”

 

     “Crackers are fine.” Claire stated, though Owen saw the glare she cast his way; she was just too tired to give him one of her comebacks.

 

     Owen got Claire to sit up in bed for a few minutes when he returned with the crackers. She nibbled on three of them before she decided that she didn’t want to push her stomach any further at the moment. He got her to take some Tylenol and drink some more water before she curled up in bed again, still wearing her pajamas that he managed to get her into last night before she passed out. Claire told him multiple times before she fell asleep that she could take care of herself for the rest of the day, that he didn’t have to babysit her. But Owen told her he would leave, and once she fell asleep he curled up beside her and held her close before drifting off to take a nap of his own.

 

     He didn’t know how long he had fallen asleep for, but he was woken by the flowery scent of one of Claire’s shampoos as she crawled back into bed beside him. Her hair was still a bit damp, and she had traded one set of pajamas for another, but she looked better than she had before Owen drifted off, which was the only thing that truly mattered to him.

 

     “Feeling better?” Owen asked as she tossed the pillow she’d been hugging all day aside and curled up into his arms.

 

      “A little.” Claire admitted with a sigh. “You didn’t have to watch over me you know, I can take care of myself.”

 

     “I know you can, but I wanted to make sure you were alright.” Owen rested his hand on the exposed bit of skin that peaked out from the bottom of her shirt on her waist. “Plus I felt kinda bad for talking you into all those shots last night.”

 

     “Hey, if I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have.” Claire assured him. “But…thank you, for staying.”

 

     Owen didn’t say a word, he only smiled and rested his forehead against Claire’s, feeling more than relieved that Claire was slightly better.

 

     “I think I’m going to pass on drinking for a while.” Claire said.

 

     “Me too,” Owen agreed, “though I do want to hear about that college story some time, it sounds like an interesting one.”

 

     “I don’t want to even talk about alcohol right now,” Claire groaned, “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”

 

     “Promise?” Owen asked with a cheeky grin.

 

      “Yes, I promise.” Claire smiled in return before tilting her head up to give Owen a peck on the cheek.


	15. Unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off the request I got from an anon: "owen tells claire how he feels about her (fluff!) and she _____ (you can decide how she reacts)"

     Owen was positive that he was starting to drive himself into insanity, overthinking something that should be simple. He knew it was his nerves getting to him, he had opened up his heart to someone once before Claire and it had left him hesitant to go through all of that again. Over their time together, Owen thought at first that their relationship was just a coping mechanism; they drifted together because they had both gone through the same trauma. Two weeks after the incident, Claire had started looking for an apartment; Owen thought that she’d drift away from him then. But then she started asking him what he thought of the places, and it wasn’t until she made the off-hand comment of him having a place to put all his stuff when they sent it back from the island that he realized she wanted him to stay with her outside of the hotel they had been trapped in together.

 

     A month later and they were living together, careful to keep to separate rooms and still unsure of what exactly was happening between them. But four months later they were still there, still together, and a series lingering touches, stolen kisses, and the occasional overnight stay in the others room for either comfort or other extracurricular activities had led Owen to this point. He knew the risks all to well of telling Claire how he really felt, that somewhere along the way between figuring out the mess their lives had become; he had fallen in love with her. Owen knew that Claire could potentially freak out, hell, for all he knew she could have made one of her plans for how this whole relationship was supposed to unfold. He didn’t want to lose her, Claire had become such a huge part of his life that he couldn’t imagine a day without her; it was the very weight of the situation however that made him hesitate every time he thought of telling her, a little quiet voice in the back of his mind telling him not to screw things up.

 

     Tonight, Claire had crept into Owen’s room, and whatever version of the same horrific nightmare they both kept reliving had decided to haunt her tonight, Claire was craving a comfort that went beyond holding each other. Once she woke him up she took the control she seemed to so desperately crave in that moment and straddled him, kissing every part of him she could reach until Owen took control. It wasn’t until they had collapsed beside one another, their chests heaving as they tried to catch their breath, that Owen had just let the words slip right out despite his weeks spent overthinking how to tell Claire how he felt.

 

     “I love you.” Owen mumbled as Claire nuzzled herself into his side.

 

     Her blue eyes were locked on him now, and despite the room only being filled with the light coming from the television Owen had left on before he fell asleep, he could see the flush in her cheeks. Claire adjusted herself beside him, propping herself up on her elbows to look him right in the eyes now as she brushed some of her hair out of her face.

 

     “What?” She asked quietly, still trying to catch her breath. “What did you say?”

 

     Owen froze, he had thought through plenty of different ways to confess how he felt to Claire, none of them involved blurting it out after some kind of comfort sex they tended to seek out. He knew he couldn’t take it back now or pretend he never said it, Claire would never let it drop even if he tried.

 

     “I said I…I love you.” Owen couldn’t help the traces of doubt that slipped into his voice. He didn’t doubt his love for Claire, he _knew_ that he was in love with her, what he doubted was that someone like her could love him back.

 

     She stared at him for a long while before her gaze flickered downward. Owen couldn’t help but watch, his heart dropping every second she stayed silent. He was sure he had messed up, that Claire was nowhere near ready to hear those words and she just might take off now. When Claire finally looked up at him again, Owen was terrified to hear what she had to say now.

 

     “You do?” Claire asked hesitantly; she looked nervous and uncertain, but there was a glint of something hopeful in her eyes.

 

     “Yeah, I do.” Owen assured her. “I don’t know for how long, I just realized it really. I’ve been trying to think of a way to tell you and, uh, I didn’t exactly have this in mind, but…here we are.”

 

     “Here we are.” Claire echoed with a grin now.

 

     They laid there in silence for a moment, neither knowing what else to say. “So, are we…are we okay?” Owen asked curiously.

 

     “Oh, uh, yeah.” Claire answered with a nod. “We’re fine, we’re great actually. I-I love you too.”

 

     “Wait, you do?” Owen asked.

 

     “Of course I do.” Claire leaned in a pressed a quick kiss against his lips.

 

     “And you’re not just saying that to make me feel better or anything, right?” He asked curiously while Claire broke out into a fit of laughter.

 

     “Have you ever known me to say something just for the sake of saying it?” Claire asked.

 

     “No, I guess you’ve got me there.” Owen grinned now. “I love you, Claire Dearing.”

 

     “And I love you, Owen Grady.” Claire giggled.

 

     She leaned over and pressed a few more kisses to Owen’s lips before he grabbed a hold of her, pulling her on top of him again, and holding her there for a real and deepened kiss.


	16. Still Into You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anon prompt: Could you write some jealous Owen (like when Claire and Owen are dating)? :)

     Owen had gotten used to everyone wanting a minute of Claire’s time and attention after the Indominus incident at the park. It only managed to get worse when Masrani had moved Claire out to San Diego, and Owen tagging along with her. She had put through interview after interview, everyone wanting to get a minute of time with the woman who ran from a T-Rex in high heels with a flare in her hand. He’d been put through his fair share of press after it was discovered that he had been the raptor trainer back on the island, but nothing could ever top the bold, brave, and beautiful Claire Dearing. Owen was fine with that, he knew the attention would die down some day since people notoriously had small attention spans when it came to the media; however the promise of all of this eventually going away never kept his jealousy at bay whenever he would catch some guy clearly hitting on Claire.

 

     Tonight had been the worst. Claire had been invited back to Jimmy Fallon, and usually all went well whenever Claire had to go on his show, but tonight Owen sat back stage, balling his hands into fists every time Jimmy Fallon’s other guest decided to speak. He was some hotshot actor who had gotten famous for some movie, Owen didn’t care, and every chance he had he was flirting with Claire. It didn’t matter how many times Jimmy Fallon tried to redirect his attention, it didn’t matter how many times Claire tried to gently let him down or tell him that Owen was backstage – _her boyfriend Owen_. The guy kept trying and with every flirtatious comment that came out of his mouth, Owen had to restrain himself from marching out onstage and decking the guy.

 

     The show seemed to last forever, but once it ended; Owen didn’t even bother to wait for her in the dressing room and navigated the maze of backstage until he found Claire. Surprisingly enough, the guy had walked off before Owen reached Claire, and it was more than likely for the best considering how Owen felt like his blood was boiling every time he saw the guys face.

 

     “Owen, are you okay?” Claire asked. “You look pissed off.”

 

     “Yeah, well, after having to watch that jackass flirt with you every five seconds I’m not great.” Owen grumbled.

 

     “He was a jerk.” Claire agreed. “But it’s fine, I never have to see him again, it’s all over with.”

 

     “I know, but the way he was all over you, it just-“

 

     “Are you actually jealous?” Claire couldn’t help but ask with a smirk.

 

     “…No. Maybe.” Owen said.

 

     “Owen,” Claire rested a hand on Owen’s cheek. “I love _you_ , and certainly no obnoxious Hollywood actor is ever going to change that. You do know that, right?”

 

     “Yeah, I know.” Owen admitted. “I can’t help it, I hate it when those jerks are all over you.”

 

     “I know.” Claire gave him a sweet smile. “But you have absolutely nothing to worry about, I promise.”

 

     Before Owen could protest again with anymore of his doubts that someone as radiant and intelligent as Claire could be with him, she got up on her tips toes, wrapped her arms around Owen’s neck, and pulled him close to kiss him. Claire usually wasn’t one for public displays of affection, especially when there were cameras all around and she knew it’d only fan the fire that still burned brightly around them, but right now Owen was more than happy with her breaking her own rules. He wrapped his arms around her waist and deepened the kiss, to hell with whoever may have been watching them, though he secretly hoped that actor would wander his way back here again and get a glimpse. He had to admit, however, that he might have gone a bit overboard in letting his hands wander to her ass, but in all honesty after kissing Claire for a while, it was easy to forget exactly where they were.

 

     “Owen, public.” Claire mumbled against his lips before pulling away completely, slowly moving his hands off of her ass and back onto her hips, though she was still smiling.

 

     “Right, sorry.” Owen said with a half-hearted shrug; he wasn’t really all that sorry.

 

     “When we get home later then we can have some fun.” Claire promised.

 

     “Sounds good to me.” Owen grinned. “I love you.”

 

     “I love you too.” Claire said, giving Owen a peck on the cheek. “How about we go ahead and get out of here?”

 

     “Well, it sounds like someone’s ready to go have some fun.” Owen laughed.

 

     Claire rolled her eyes though she was still smiling, grabbing one of Owen’s hands off of her waist and starting to lead him out of the place.

 

     “Maybe I should get jealous more often if it ends like this.” Owen stated.

 

     “Don’t even think about it.” Claire playfully warned him.


	17. Five Minutes to Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by anonymous: Claire and Owen are each other's New Years kiss at an employee event held by Masrani. Maybe if they had some sort of interaction and then Owen unexpectedly kisses her at midnight!

     She looked stunning in her black dress, and while it was strange to Owen in to see Claire Dearing in anything other than her traditional office attire, that didn’t change the fact that Claire still looked stunning. It was bad enough that, ever since he met Claire a few months, he had a habit of turning into a lost puppy, watching her every move and trying to work up the nerve to talk to her. But, god, why did she have to wear that dress, and have that adorable little smile he’d catch her with right before he’d get her to laugh? He didn’t even want to think about that wonderful vanilla scented lotion she wore.

 

     “Well, are you going to go talk to her or are you going to stare at her all night?” Barry’s voice pulled Owen out of his daydream and back to the very real reality where Claire Dearing was across the room, and he was staring at her like an idiot.

 

     “I’ll talk to her.” Owen mumbled in return as he got another drink from the bartender, where he’d been spending most of the New Year’s Party Masrani had decided to throw.

 

     “You’ve been saying that all night, it’s five minutes until midnight and you haven’t even said two words to her yet.” Barry stated.

 

     “What? There’s no way it’s that late.” Owen said, yet as soon as he checked his watch, he was proven wrong. It was exactly five minutes until midnight and he hadn’t even tried to talk to Claire. “Crap.”

 

     “Just go say something to her, _anything_.” Barry said.

 

     “I don’t know, she looks a little busy.” Owen knew he was trying to make an excuse now, she was talking to her assistant Zara, the one who barely cast him a glance when he’d go to Claire’s office and spent most of her time answering calls and replying to emails.

 

     “Go talk to her Owen, she’s a human being, not a velociraptor, what’s the worst that could happen?” Barry was trying to reassure him.

 

     Owen could think of a lot of things that could possibly go wrong, he’d seen how Claire could get before, though thankfully it was never directed at him.

 

     “Alright, fine.” Owen said in a moment of courage that he’d managed to work up.

 

     Barry clapped him on the shoulder before he picked up his drink and walked over to Claire. Her assistant spotted him coming from a mile away, and he got a bit nervous when he saw her whisper something to Claire, but then she flitted off to some other part of the room and Owen felt a bit of relief with just Claire standing there. She was sipping on her champagne slowly and glancing around the room, if Owen hadn’t been so caught up in his own nerves he would almost swear that Claire looked a bit nervous too.

 

     “Having fun?” Was the only thing that Owen could think of to start the conversation and capture Claire’s attention.

 

     “As much fun as you can have at a company party I guess.” Claire shrugged with that secret smile of hers playing on her lips. Owen tried to keep himself from just staring at her bright red lips that he _desperately_ wanted to kiss, but he’d failed until Claire spoke again. “How about you? You having any fun?”

 

     “It’s hard to not have at least a little bit of fun when there’s an open bar.” Owen smirked and took another sip off his drink.

 

     “You’re not having any champagne for midnight?” Claire asked.

 

     “Oh, right, I forgot about that.” Owen downed the rest of his drink, and before he could find one of the many waiters walking around the room with the trays full of champagne, Claire took his empty glass and grabbed one of the champagne flutes off of a nearby tray and handed it off to Owen. “Thanks.”

 

     “One minute until midnight!” Someone from around the room called out and it erupted into cheers from everyone.

 

     Owen wanted to talk to Claire some more now that he had finally gotten the courage to walk over to her, but the room quickly became far more focused on the countdown to the new year, hearing nothing but everyone counting down. Once it was finally midnight, the room was full of cheers again, and after spotting a few couples pull each other in for a kiss, Owen used his courage to do something potentially stupid that just might get him fired somehow. He took Claire’s hand and gently tugged her towards him, not giving her much time to react before his lips crashed down around hers. He wasn’t surprised when Claire pulled away after a minute, a slightly shocked look on her face. Owen was beginning to mentally prepare an apology to her for kissing her out of the blue, that was until she got up on her tip toes, using her free hand to pull at the collar of his shirt to bring him down closer to her, and kissed him again.

 

     This time, Owen was the one who was left shocked after their kiss, and Claire seemed to be wearing an ear-to-ear grin. _Holy shit, she actually wanted to kiss me!_ Was the main reoccurring thought racing through Owen’s mind for a few minutes, until he could actually string along a proper sentence to say to her.

 

     “Do you…would you like to go out sometime?” He asked, Owen began to hope that he hadn’t read the situation wrong and she didn’t want to make him look like an idiot on New Year’s Eve.

 

     “That sounds nice actually.” Claire answered with a smile.

 

     Owen had to remember to buy Barry a beer for this sometime, if he didn’t push him over here, he would have never gotten the courage worked up to actually ask Claire out on a date. Hell, he figured he owed Barry a whole case of beer at this point.


	18. Jealousy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off a prompt I got from an anon asking for some more Jealous!Owen.

     Owen never wanted to be the jealous boyfriend who immediately thought the worst whenever someone came near his significant other. And before Claire had entered the picture, he’d never been the overly jealous type. There had been instances where he would be a bit overprotective, but with Claire it was different, he supposed it was because he never loved someone like he loved her before. Owen trusted Claire completely, that was never the problem, it was other people – especially ones he never met before – that he had a hard time trusting.

 

     It was about four months ago when Claire had first mentioned him; some guys named Adam that just started working with her. Owen lost track of when she started mentioned this Adam almost every day, but aside from occasionally heating about her assistant Jane, he heard about Adam every day. Most of the time Owen was trapped at the zoo, rarely ever to go out to lunch with Claire. Today was one of those rare days, and he planned on taking advantage of it to surprise Claire at the office, and catch a glimpse of who this Adam was.

 

     “Afternoon, Mr. Grady.” Claire’s assistant, Jane, said cheerfully as Owen made his way towards Claire’s office.

 

     “Hey, Jane.” Owen answered, he’d given up on trying to get her to stop saying _Mr. Grady_ a long time ago, she was more stubborn than Claire when it came to that. “Where’s Claire? I wanted to surprise her and take her out to lunch.”

 

     “Aw, that’s so sweet.” Jane beamed. “She had a meeting earlier, it should be done by now. Try conference room three, it’s down the first hallway to your left.”

 

     “Thanks.” Owen replied and walked off.

 

     The new office building where Claire worked was literally a maze to Owen. There were desks filled with employees left and right, too many phones going off all at once, and too many people in stuffy suits paying more attention to their cell phones than to where they were walking. He followed the directions that Jane had given him and stumbled across several different conference rooms, thankfully the glass walls and numbers on the doors helped narrow it down. He was halfway down the hall when he saw a flash of Claire’s bright red hair, followed by her laughter, with a guy at her side.

 

     “Owen, what are you doing here?” Claire asked, a grin still plastered on her face as she walked over to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

 

     “Thought I’d surprise you and take you out to lunch since I don’t get to get away from the tigers too often.” Owen kept a stern glare on the man who was a few steps back, hands in his pockets, and trying to give Owen what appeared to be a friendly smile.

 

     Claire seemed to catch on to where Owen’s gaze was fixated and she cleared her throat to catch his attention. “Owen, this is Adam; Adam, this is my boyfriend, Owen.” Claire introduced them.

 

     “Nice to finally meet you Owen,” Adam held out his hand. “I’ve heard all about you.”

 

     “Yeah, same here.” Owen shook Adam’s hand to be polite, despite the awkward silence that fell between them.

 

     “So, uh, you work with the tigers down at the San Diego Zoo, right?” Adam asked, Owen nodded and he could sense Claire glaring at him now.

 

     “Yeah, I’ve been there for a few years.” Owen sighed.

 

     “My kid loves tigers, I’ll have to bring him by sometime.” Adam smiled.

 

     “That’d be great.” Claire interjected before Owen could say something.

 

     “You two go enjoy lunch, I’ll see you later Claire.” Adam dismissed himself and walked off, Owen’s glare following him the entire time.

 

     “Owen, what is that matter with you?” Claire hissed as soon as Adam was out of earshot.

 

     “He seemed awfully friendly.” Owen grumbled.

 

     “That tends to happen a lot since I am friends with him after all.” Claire retorted.

 

     “I don’t like the way he looks at you.” Owen said.

 

     Claire looked at him in confusion for a moment, as if she couldn’t comprehend what he was exactly saying. Once she realized what had Owen so disgruntled, she couldn’t help but laugh.

 

     “What’s so funny?” Owen asked.

 

     “You, Owen.” Claire was still laughing. “Are you actually jealous of Adam?”

 

     “No.” Owen mumbled, he knew Claire could see right though his lie, which only caused a grin to spread across her face.

 

     “I can’t believe you’re actually jealous.” Claire smiled. “Owen, you have nothing to worry about trust me. First of all, Adam is married.”

 

     “That’s never stopped anyone before.” Owen countered.

 

     “Second, don’t you trust me?” Claire asked.

 

     “What? Of course I trust you.” Owen replied immediately. “Claire, I trust you more than anyone else in the world, it’s other people I don’t know that I don’t trust.”

 

     “Good.” Claire smirked and pressed a quick kiss to Owen’s lips. “Third, I’m pretty sure I’m not Adam’s type.”

 

     “You’re practically everyone’s type. You’re smart, beautiful, successful-“

 

     “While I’d love to hear you keep going with that sentence,” Claire interrupted. “I meant that I’m not his type because I’m not a guy.”

 

     Owen looked at Claire in confusion for a moment, running her sentence over and over in his head a few times before it finally hit him.

 

     “ _Oh_.” Owen said, feeling like an idiot now for not only how he’d acted towards Adam, but how worked up he’d gotten in the first place. “Shit, and I was just a complete ass to him.”

 

     “I’m sure he’ll enjoy hearing that story on Friday night, I invited him and his husband Bryan over for dinner, so you’d finally get to meet him.” Claire smiled.

 

     “That probably would have been helpful to hear before I was a jerk.” Owen sighed.

 

     “I have to admit, though you were a bit of a jerk, its kind of adorable knowing you get so jealous now.” Claire had a grin plastered on her face; Owen knew he wouldn’t hear the end of this for months to come.

 

     “Come on, let’s go grab some lunch before I make an even bigger jerk of myself.” Owen said, Claire couldn’t help but laugh again before pressing another kiss to his cheek.


	19. Workaholic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by an anon for Owen to get Claire a day off and give her a second date, post incident!

     Getting Claire Dearing to take a day off was almost next to impossible. Even when they had lived on Isla Nublar, Owen remembered Claire only taking days off when she was _forced_ into taking them off by Mr. Masrani. Which was exactly why Owen didn’t even bother in trying to convince Claire to take a day off from work, he got a day off for her. Perhaps by lying and saying something about Claire getting a terrible stomach bug, but a day off nonetheless.

 

     “Owen,” Claire called out from her bedroom. They’d kept to their own separate spaces; only just starting to figure out what was going on between them a month after the Indominus tore the island apart and pushed them together. “How come I’ve gotten six e-mails this morning for people telling me to get better soon?”

 

     “Uh, right, about that.” Owen knew Claire would find out one way or another. “I got you the day off.”

 

     “What?” Claire asked in shock. “Owen, I can’t miss work, there’s still so much that needs to be done. I had to be in three separate meetings this morning and-“

 

     “And I told everyone you have a stomach bug, so you have the day off.” Owen interrupted. “Claire, you’ve been working every single day since we got to the mainland. Yes, I know there’s still a ton of work to be done, but it will still be there tomorrow. Just one day off, that’s all I ask, just take one day off and relax. You haven’t stopped running around in heels since we got away from the Indominus.” He smirked.

 

     Claire looked like she wanted to fight him on it, because that was who she was. She was a stubborn workaholic who refused to take a day off if there was no real reason for her to have a day off. She played around with her cell phone in her hands for a few moments, debating on calling work. After a few moments, Claire let out a heavy sigh and placed her phone down on the counter.

 

     “I suppose I should get changed then.” She mumbled before turning back towards her room, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor of their apartment until she finally shut the bedroom door behind her.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Seeing Claire out of her usual business attire was strange. In all honesty, Owen didn’t know she even owned casual clothes aside from the outfits she wore to the office. She owned jeans, an actual pair of jeans, and while Owen was sure the shirt she was wearing could have doubled for something she wore to the office at some point, he figured the jeans were relaxed enough for her. Claire gingerly sat down beside Owen on the sofa, and after a minute of sitting she was already fidgeting around, not knowing what to do with herself.

 

     “Alright, what do you do to relax?” Owen asked.

 

     “I’m not sure.” Claire admitted. “I haven’t had a day off in a while, I don’t know what to really do.”

 

     “Okay…well, what do you find relaxing?” Owen turned to face her now, finding it almost surprising that Claire was sitting cross-legged on the couch.

 

     “I like reading.” Claire shrugged, though Owen just glared at her. “What? Reading can be relaxing.”

 

     “Oh, I know. But I was thinking along the lines of something we could do together. And unless you plan on reading a comic book or something, which I doubt, reading’s not so fun to do with another person.” Owen said.

 

     Claire nodded and couldn’t help but chew on her lower lip. Owen could see just how hard she was trying to think of something, and he found it almost sad that she couldn’t think of anything.

 

     “Have you ever seen Star Wars?” Owen asked curiously.

 

     “Nope.” Claire replied.

 

     “Seriously? You’ve _never_ seen Star Wars?” Owen asked in disbelief.

 

     “I mean, I’ve seen parts of one of them, but I haven’t seen one all the way through before, no.” Claire answered.

 

     “I know what we’re going to do today.” Owen smiled.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

     After sitting and watching the first two movies together, halfway through _The Empire Strikes Back_ , Owen got up and quietly made his way to the kitchen, starting to go through with his actual plan for their day off together. Owen’s first date with Claire had ended horribly and he hadn’t lived it down yet, though it had become a bit of a joke between them now. Tonight however, he planned on righting the wrong of that very first date by making Claire dinner. He knew he might be going a bit overboard with the candles he had, but if this date went even a fraction of a bit better than the first, he would consider it a success.

 

     “Owen, what are you doing in there? You’re missing half the movie!” Claire called out from the living room.

 

     Owen was quite proud of the fact that he managed to get Claire interested in Star Wars, it took her a while at first to get things straight, but now she was officially hooked.

 

     “I’m making dinner.” Owen answered. “It’s almost done, I promise.”

 

     “Okay.” Claire sounded far more occupied with the movie than Owen’s actual answer.

 

     A few minutes later, Owen made he way out to the living room with the candles first in the darkened living room. He saw Claire look at him in complete confusion, though she was pretending to keep her eyes on the movie. Once the candles were set up and lit, Owen came back into the living room with their dinner for the night.

 

     “Candlelit grilled cheese and tomato soup?” Claire asked with a smile.

 

     “I was going to try something else but honestly, I’m not that great of a cook.” Owen admitted.

 

     “That makes two of us.” Claire laughed. “So what is all of this? A second date?”

 

     “I’d like to think it’s already off to a better start than the last one.” Owen smirked.

 

     “It certainly is. We’ve got good food, and someone isn’t wearing board shorts.” Claire said.

 

     “Well, someone I know didn’t make an itinerary for the night.” Owen jested.

 

     Claire laughed, and it was one of those wonderful carefree laughs Owen had only heard one other time since they’d gotten off the island together. She looked genuinely happy, and for once she didn’t look drop dead exhausted.

 

     “Thank you for this Owen, all of this. I needed a day off, and the second date isn’t so bad either.” Claire was leaning up against his shoulder now, her eyes still focused on the screen as she took another bite out of her grilled cheese.

 

    “Anytime you need another day off, just let me know.” Owen couldn’t help but wrap his arm around her shoulder.

 

     “How about another date?” Claire asked, catching Owen by surprise.

 

     “Anytime you want.” Owen smiled in return.


	20. Sweet Talker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was a prompt given to me by for-sur-viv-al on tumblr: What if Owen starts sleep talking and then Claire told Owen but he wouldn't believe her so she'll record it the next time but while she was recording it Owen sleep talked and said that he loves Claire and then Claire stops recording and she kissed him on the cheek which woke up Owen and they snuggled.

     Claire was a light sleeper, she always had been especially after living on the island and ready to jump at any phone call; the Indominus had made sleep nearly impossible for a while until Owen started sleeping beside her. But despite wrapping herself around Owen nearly every night for a year and a half now, Claire was still a light sleeper, and Owen just so happened to talk in his sleep. The first time she had heard him talk in his sleep, she thought he was having a nightmare; he kept calling out the names of his lost raptors, even whistling as he usually commanded them. The talking always changed, sometimes he was talking to his girls, sometimes he’d be talking to a family member he rarely mentioned or even Barry, but most commonly he would talk about Claire herself in his dreams.

 

     In most of his dreams, from what she could piece together of how he dreamed about her, they were just talking like they do during the day – he was actually a bit sweeter in his dreams. Other times when he’d moan her name out, Claire couldn’t help but blush and try to hide her face, those times she was tempted to wake him up if only to prove he didn’t need to dream about them having sex when they could just do it whenever they wanted. Every morning when he’d talk in his sleep, regardless of what it was about, Claire would try to tell him what he said. And every morning Owen would deny that he talked in his sleep, just as he claimed not to snore, though Claire begged to differ.

 

     “I’m telling you Claire, I don’t talk in my sleep.” Owen said over their shared morning cup of coffee before heading out to work for the day.

 

     “Yes, you do.” Claire argued with a smile. “Last night was…interesting to say the least.”

 

     “What did I supposedly say?” Owen asked with a knowing smirk, thinking that there was no way Claire could prove her point for once.

 

     “You said some things, things you usually only say when we’re …you know.” Claire didn’t want to blurt out ‘ _the things you moan out while we’re having sex_ ’, but from the confused stare she was getting from Owen, she felt she had to. “When we have sex.”

 

     “Oh.” Owen realized, for once Claire swore she could catch Owen blushing, trying to hide it behind taking a giant sip of his coffee.

 

     “Believe me yet?” Claire asked.

 

     “I still don’t think I talk in my sleep.” Owen stated.

 

     “Fine, I’ll prove it. I’m going to record you sleeping tonight.” Claire insisted.

 

     “If that makes you happy.” Owen smirked before leaning in to steal a kiss from Claire. “Honestly though, who wouldn’t have sex dreams about you?”

 

     Claire rolled her eyes and playfully swatted at his arm before giving him a peck on the cheek.

 

     “I’m still recording you sleep talking tonight.” She said.

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Claire had been waiting all day for that night, in fact, when it came time for them to turn in for the night, Claire couldn’t even make herself fake sleeping in front of Owen. He fell asleep halfway through the movie they were watching, once he was out Claire turned off the TV and lied in wait for him to start talking. It happened like clockwork, sometime around midnight as always, that was usually when his vivid dreams kicked in. He started mumbling about her, she knew it must have been driving him nuts all day that she was going to record him sleeping and prove that she was right. She grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and hit the record button, the camera aimed right at Owen and capturing the beginnings of his muttering.

 

     “Claire…Claire…No, I’m not gonna wear the shorts, I promise.” He mumbled, Claire had to hold back her laughter once she realized he must have been dreaming about their anniversary, she teased him to death about the board shorts to this very day. “Mhmm, I know.”

 

    He stayed silent for a few more minutes, Claire had thought that perhaps that would be all the sleep talking she’d get out of him for the night, it was enough to prove her point she figured, but then he rolled over and continued with his mumblings.

 

    “I love you Claire, I love you so much…I’m the luckiest guy in the whole world.” He muttered out.

 

     That was enough to cause Claire to lean in and kiss him with a smile plastered on her face. The minute she saw Owen’s eyes fluttered open she ended the recording on her phone and placed it back over on the nightstand.

 

     “You’re still awake?” Owen asked in a sleep filled haze, only registering that she had woken him up and nothing more. “Are you seriously trying to catch me talking in my sleep?”

 

     “No, I gave up.” Claire shrugged innocently. “I just wanted to kiss you before I went to sleep.”

 

     “Oh, well, I can help with that.” Owen smirked and pulled Claire close to him, kissing her lips before moving down and kissing all the way down her neck to her collarbone.

 

     “Goodnight Owen.” Claire cut him off with a laugh. “Early morning, we can fool around tomorrow night.”

 

     Owen groaned and grumbled like a pouty child before he finally gave up and just listened to Claire, settling for wrapping his arms around her and holding her the entire night while she attempted to get some sleep.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Owen was almost always the first one awake in the house, while Claire claimed to have always been an early riser, the minute he started sharing a bed with Claire he learned that wasn’t true. She’d sleep until the last minute possible, hitting her alarm three or four times before finally rolling out of bed, Claire’s first alarm was usually the thing that got Owen up and out of bed. He made them coffee, like he always did, and yet unlike most mornings, Claire was up and joining him shortly after he second alarm had sounded off.

 

     “Morning,” Owen said as he handed over her cup of coffee. “Look who decided to join the land of the living today.” He smirked.

 

     “Ha ha, make all the jokes you want, I slept great last night.” Claire gave him a proud smile before leaning in and stealing her morning kiss.

 

     “That’s impossible, we didn’t do anything last night.” Owen jested; Claire rolled her eyes as she always did as most of his attempts at a joke.

 

     “I slept great because I have proof that you talk in your sleep, and you’re kind of adorable when you want to be.” Claire held out her cell phone and pressed play on the video she caught last night so Owen could see.

 

     He watched for a moment and once he heard himself talking, he turned a shade of embarrassed red that she had never seen before on him.

 

     “Huh, well…I guess you were right then.” Owen shifted his weight from foot to foot, he was genuinely embarrassed and yet all Claire found herself wanting to do was to wrap her arms around him and kiss him for hours on end.

 

     “Owen, it’s adorable. Even in your sleep you still love me.” Claire smiled.

 

     “Of course I do, I’d be an idiot not to. I dream about you almost all the time.” Owen admitted, though the red on his cheeks finally seemed to fade up a bit.

 

     “I love you Owen.” Claire got up on her tip-toes and planted a kiss right on Owen’s lips, only to squeak in surprise when Owen wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the kiss.

 

     “I love you too.” Owen said with a smile once he pulled away from the kiss. “And I’ll try to keep the sleep talking down from now on.”

 

     “I don’t know, if you’re going to keep telling me you love me in your sleep, I just might be able to deal with it.” Claire grinned.


	21. No Matter What

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off a prompt from an anon: Owen reminds Claire that she used to try her very best to look presentable when meeting him before the incident, while they’re cuddling at home, and they get a good laugh from thinking about it!“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m finally moving down my list of prompts! This one is short but I think it turned out pretty adorable, or as least I hope so.

     Claire always had a certain way of dressing, she always kept her outfits perfectly planned out, never a wrinkle or piece out of place. She had a habit of keeping her hair the same way as well; perfectly straight, not even so much as a single piece of frizzy hair left alone. Claire liked being presentable at all times, and even after everything that happened on the island, when she started living with Owen which led to them dating, Claire hated letting him see her messy in any form. In the first few months of them being together, she’d wake up before him and shower and get dressed, she’d even go so far as fixing her hair and putting even more of her vanilla scented lotion on before bed. Slowly over the year though, much to Owen’s insistence that she didn’t have to go through to much, Claire let go, a little bit.

 

     She always kept her appearance up for going out, no matter what, but staying at home became a bit easier. Claire wouldn’t put on so much makeup, she wouldn’t keep her uncomfortable clothes on until bedtime, and sometimes she even let herself wear jeans around the house. It took some getting used to, all of Claire’s boyfriends in the past liked her keeping up her looks at all ungodly hours of the day, but Owen was different, he wanted Claire to be comfortable around him. And, much to her surprise, the more comfortable she let herself be around Owen, the more affectionate she noticed he became.

 

     Today she had let herself relax almost completely, she wore sweats and one of Owen’s t-shirts, and since she was letting her hair grow out a bit she even put it up in a pony tail for once. She had a rare day off, no running around, no places to be or people in suits to impress, she could do whatever she wanted and wear whatever she pleased. Owen had an emergency call down at the zoo, one of his tigers acting up, but it wasn’t long before Claire heard him trudge in through the front door, kicking his boots off at the front door and dropping his keys on the table.

 

     “Everything okay?” Claire called out from the living room, she had nestled herself on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in her lap as she watched some sci-fi movie that was on TV, one of her guilty pleasures.

 

     “It’s fine, one of the toys from the zoo fell into the cage, and one of the girls got ahold of it and was choking. She’s fine, they sedated her and were able to get it out no problem.” Owen sighed as he walked into the living room, stopping for a moment, as his worry quickly faded away to joy. “Well, look at you, enjoying your day off?”

 

     “For once.” Claire grinned in return as she sat up on the couch now, patting the seat on the sofa beside her for Owen to sit.

 

     Owen walked over to her, a grin on his face, as he took the seat, but not before lifting Claire’s legs up and placing them on his lap, stealing a bit of popcorn from her bowl in the process.

 

     “It’s nice to see you so relaxed.” Owen smiled.

 

     “I figured why try and fight it anymore.” Claire shrugged. “Especially at home.”

 

     As the movie went on, they went through a number of different positions, searching for comfort on the sofa. Eventually just as the ending of the movie came around, Owen had ended up sprawled out on the sofa while Claire was sitting up, Owen’s head in her lap while Claire ran her fingers though his hair.

 

     “You need a hair cut.” Claire mused, a faint smile on her face as she watched Owen slowly drift off to sleep, the stress of the day finally wearing him down.

 

     “I know.” Owen mumbled, fighting to keep his eyes open.

 

   “You can sleep if you want.” Claire told him.

 

     “No, no, I wanna see the ending.” Owen said, causing Claire to giggle at his sleepy banter. “Keep me awake.”

 

     “Alright, what do you want to talk about?” Claire asked with a smirk.

 

     “Mmm, I don’t know.” Owen yawned now. “I like your clothes.”

 

     “Owen, I’m wearing sweats and a t-shirt.” Claire laughed. “It’s not exactly my best outfit.”

 

     “I don’t care, you look nice, happy.” Owen said. “You’re not all stressed and tense…you don’t look like a robot.”

 

     “Do I normally look like that?” Claire asked a bit worried.

 

     “No!” Owen quickly exclaimed, sitting up now and pressing a kiss to Claire’s cheek. “You always looked beautiful, just sometimes you get so stressed out you look so uncomfortable in all those suits. I like to see you like this, just relaxed and happy. Remember when we first started dating, how worked up you’d get about how you looked?” Owen asked with a grin.

 

     “I just didn’t want to…I don’t know, I was just always used to doing that stuff around guys.” Claire shrugged.

 

     “Claire, I saw you covered in dinosaur poop while we were running for our lives away from the Indominus.” Owen countered.

 

     “Yeah, well, that’s not exactly how I want you to remember me.” Claire mumbled.

 

     “Claire, you’re beautiful, weather you’re covered in dinosaur poop or wearing a full business get up or just like this, wearing sweats and enjoying a day off like any other human being in the world.” Owen assured her. “You never needed to dress up for me…though I do appreciate the lotion, it’s nice.”

 

     “Better than the dino poop?” Claire asked with a chuckle.

 

     “Much better than the dino poop.” Owen laughed in return.

 

     Claire felt relieved, more than she had in a long time, and leaned in to steal a kiss from Owen before nestling her head into his chest, his arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her close as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

 

     “I love you Claire, no matter what.” Owen mumbled.

 

     “I love you too.” Claire smiled. “No matter what.”


	22. Irresistible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from cali-fornacationn: “during the bungalow scene when Claire walks down the stairs she’s face to face with Owen. What if he lost it and just kissed her then and there? What would’ve happened??”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This turned out to be a short but sweet little drabble, I hope you guys like it, I had some fun while writing this one ;)

     Despite their failed attempt at a date, there was no denying the chemistry that sparked between them – especially when they had their little spats. Claire wanted to push all those feelings down, she didn’t want the butterflies in her stomach whenever Owen smirked at her or got a little too in her personal space. She wanted to pretend that more than anything, they could just be co-workers, she was here to take him to the Indominus paddock, and so far all he was doing was dancing around the topic at every chance he could take.

 

     “Are you going to help, or not?” Claire demanded, Owen and her had been having a sort of stare down for a few minutes now, he was blocking the exit off the stares and looking at her with that damn smirk that haunted some of her less than appropriate dreams. _Why does he have to wear such a tight shirt anyway?_ Claire couldn’t help but think as her eyes wandered a bit.

 

     “It doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice in the matter.” Owen laughed, he caught her Claire and his grin only grew wider, he caught her staring at him and something told her he would never let it go now.

 

     “Well, you might want to change your shirt, they’re sensitive to smell.” Claire jabbed at him. For a moment she felt proud, she’d gotten him back a bit, though she’d hardly call it a come back, Owen always seemed more than entertained by her jests.

 

     “Care to help me with that then?” Owen’s voice seemed a bit huskier now and Claire didn’t like the way his voice had such an effect on her. It was that very same tempting voice that had gotten her to kiss him on their date, despite how awfully it had ended.

 

     “I’d rather not.” Claire wrinkled up her nose, as he got closer for effect, though he didn’t smell bad at all. He smelled like the forest surrounding them, and for some reason the smell of the grease from him working on his bike even seemed pleasant in that moment. _Put some distance between you and him_ , Claire thought as he inched closer.

 

     “You sure about that?” Owen asked with a grin. He’d managed to trap her now, both of his hands at her sides and gripping the railing behind her, Claire felt helpless in his arms, but she couldn’t deny the longing that had developed in the pit of her stomach to just wrap her arms around him and kiss him.

 

     “I’m sure.” Claire said, returning a smirk of her own now.

 

     That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back; Owen practically lunged in at her, his lips crashing down around hers. Claire wanted to be strong and fight him off, remind him they had tried this before and it ended in both of them being pretty miserable, but something was different. His kiss tasted just a bit sweeter despite the layer of sweat and grease he was covered in, she almost dared to say there was a spark, and despite her better judgment when his tongue pressed against her bottom lip, she could help but open her mouth to grant him access. They stared like that longer than Claire would care to admit, his hands never touched her, wanting to avoid staining her clothes, but her whole body felt electrified and she almost whimpered as he pulled away leaving her breathless.

 

     “Sure you don’t wanna help me what that shirt?” Owen asked, his smirk back and wider than ever.

 

     “I…I’m sure.” Claire cleared her throat and tried to regain control of herself. “Just…go get changed, I’ll be in the car.”

 

     Owen lingered for a minute; his smirk faded away to a simple and soft smile before he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Claire’s cheek. Compared to the passionate moment they just shared, it was gentle and welcomed. Owen’s arms moved away from Claire and he disappeared inside his bungalow, Claire couldn’t deny how her heart was racing or the hot flush she felt crawling up her cheeks. Owen was more than just rough edges and snark, there was something gentle in there underneath his many layers, and now more than ever, Claire wanted to know that gentle side of him.


	23. The Way You Make Me Feel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by an anon, based off of a head cannon I gave for Clawen: Could you write a prompt about Claire getting turned on after seeing Owen being all sweaty!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's short and sweet, a little shorter than I expected but I really wanted to get in done before tonight! Happy New Year everyone!

     For the first time in a while, Claire was actually home before Owen. It had been a more than uneventful day at the office, and since all her work was done, Claire actually left work early. When she called Owen on her way home all he had to say was that he must have finally been rubbing off on her after two years of living together. Naturally however, Owen was going to be running late, and Claire did her best to occupy herself with things around the house until then.

 

     She vacuumed, did some dusting, threw in a few loads of laundry, showered, started trying to read the book she’d meant to read but had never gotten too with her late nights the past month, she even started dinner – though she couldn’t promise how good it would be since she hadn’t cooked in a while. Claire was beginning to wonder just how late Owen was going to be, half tempted to call him and see if he’d even be here by the time dinner was done, and just as she picked up her cell phone, she heard Owen’s boots thud against the floor by the front door.

 

   “There you are,” Claire called out from the kitchen. “Rough day?”

 

     “One of the girls got sick. Have you ever tried to get a full-grown lioness to take medicine? It’s worse than a kid.” Owen laughed.

 

     “I can only imagine.” Claire smirked. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

 

     “Alright.” Owen said.

 

     No matter how quietly Owen was trying to walk up behind her, Claire could hear him with a smile on her face. He always tried to sneak up on her – sometimes he’d actually do it, other times Claire would let him think that he actually got her. When his hands snaked around her waist she turned around and planted a kiss on his lips.

 

     “Why are you always trying to scare me?” Claire asked with an amused grin.

 

     “It’s kinda cute when you get scared.” Owen grinned back and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m gonna go get in the shower.”

 

     Owen was covered in a layer of sweat, he’d been working outside just about all day and running back and forth between the girls that were healthy and the one that wasn’t. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but seeing Owen like this, rough and rugged and covered in sweat, it turned her on just a bit.

 

     “Care for some company?” Claire offered.

 

     Owen looked at her curiously for a second, Claire was surprised that he still hadn’t pieced things together yet – she always followed him into the shower, weather she already showered or not, whenever he was like this.

 

     “Someone is frisky tonight.” Owen smirked. “What about dinner?”

 

     “It should be done.” Claire said as she turned the over off. “I’ve got time.” Her hands slowly started working their way up the front of Owen’s shirt while she was biting her bottom lip, more than tempted to just lunge forward and start kissing him and stripping him down right then and there.

 

     Unable to resist, Owen scooped Claire up while she let out a startled yelp. “Well, what are we waiting for then?” Owen asked as he leaned in and kissed Claire on the cheek. “Sounds like there’s a nice hot shower upstairs with out name on it.”


End file.
